Cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the practice of using shared, on-demand computing resources hosted on the Internet on a pay-for-use basis. Cloud computing offers several advantages over traditional data center computing environments, such as the utilization of elastic resources that can be scaled up or down quickly and easily to meet demand. Thus, in recent years, cloud services have rapidly become one of the most adopted technologies in information technology (IT).
To take advantage of these cloud computing advantages, however, an organization typically must relocate its existing software services. This process—known as cloud migration—involves moving data, applications, and/or other business elements from an organization's onsite computers, typically one or more data centers, to the cloud. Transitioning to the cloud, however, presents new IT challenges associated with interoperability, data and application portability, data integrity, business continuity, and security. These challenges stem from, among other things, the fact that applications designed to operate in legacy data centers cannot take advantage of many benefits offered by the cloud architecture. Thus, an organization migrating its software solutions from a data center to the cloud must reconfigure its current software solutions to take advantage of these benefits.
As part of the migration process, organizations typically set out production readiness criteria defining when software solutions being migrated are ready for cloud deployment. Currently, however, no tools exist for organizations to adequately track compliance with its production readiness criteria, much less assess the overall progress of its cloud transformation efforts as the infrastructure for software solutions becomes code based.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved cloud migration tools capable of addressing these and other shortcomings within the technology field. For example, a need exists for improved cloud migration tools providing aggregate oversight of compliance with cloud migration protocols, including user-defined architectural guidelines for a coded infrastructure. Moreover, there is a need for improved cloud migration tools providing automated detective cloud controls, particularly in the management across multiple cloud computing platform accounts, virtual private clouds (VPCs), and/or a large numbers of resources.